A SOCIAL CRY FOR NORMALITY
Fr. IRENEUSZ SKUBIŚ
In the recent months, crowds of a few thousand people have walked along the streets of many Polish cities, which wanted to shout about a very important thing to the world: that life is a valuable , the most wonderful gift, which we could ever receive, and that we must appreciate it. How beautifully it composes with what happens on St. Peter’s Square, when the Holy Father Francis leans out of his car and takes little children into his hands, blesses them and gives them a kiss in the eyes of crowds of a few thousand people from the whole world. The behaviour of the Pope is an example for the whole world, how important children are and that we must love them, and more: we must love the human being, he –each of us – deserves love and respect. Love and expressing it, that is, sensitivity, are the deepest first human expectations. As specialists say, even a very little human being, the one who lives in the womb of his mother, needs her sensitivity and look full of love. Also every adult needs it, also the one, whose life is coming to end.
Therefore, it is so important to open the eyes of the society to the issues of these first basic human needs. It is also important to care about health and strength of mothers of conceived babies. We should appreciate here the role of their surroundings – family, relatives, friends, but also an important role is played by doctors, whom we must remind about Hippocrates’ oath made by them. For, their suggestions of abortion, or getting rid of uncomfortable pregnancy are unacceptable. These are criminal proposals because suggesting a woman killing her baby is simply a crime, is also depriving a doctor of his mission of rescuing human life. It is also a call to every mother, in whom life was conceived, that she should do everything for its fuller development.
Not only does the Catholic theology say that the conceived life is the human being. It is obvious that nothing will be born from joined alive human cells of a woman and a man, than the human being. Moreover, every human being must be aware of the fact that his road is inscribed in the eternal plan of God. Therefore, we should have a highly respectful attitude towards the conceived life.
As we see, life vocation is possible in a laboratory today. However, can we manipulate the human genotype, and in an environment which is completely different from the natural one? Is the man allowed to enter into God’s plans about the human life? There are boundaries of interference into this process, which should be respected from the ethical and moral points of view. When we want to maintain respect towards the human being from the conception, we must maintain respect for a way of existence of the human life, which requires maintaining the moral order. The law of biology, the law of nature must be maintained. This is the way in which the Catholic ethics sees this issue, but not only. Serious medicine, which comes from the human being with the greatest respect, also signs under the sentence: ‘Sancta sanctetractare’ –holy things should be treated in a holy way. Human life is holy, therefore it should be treated in a holy way, that is, with the greatest respect and love.
So, on every occasion we are obliged to remind people, first of all, doctors, as well as those who have a power of influence on the social life: parliamentarians, politicians, publicists about a value and respect for appearing life, because it concerns the whole society. A growing child is the best example that the conceived human being reaches the phase of a born human being who is created for further development. This is a challenge which is faced up by all societies. A child must have safe existence, a possibility for education and harmonious development – and here a big role of the country starts, its worries and care about all saint citizens. In order to create the best atmosphere for human development as possible, whole legal systems should be engaged. We see there is a lot to do. Today help to the family is becoming a big social cry. In fact everything in the country should be focused on the family, on the developing human being, who finds safety in his family and help in his development. So, the family must have possibilities of living in peace, in suitable material welfare, because it is going to influence the quality of the future generations.
What a pity that the Polish family lawdoes not create good conditions for giving birth and upbringing a young man. Unfortunately, our politicians forgot that help to the family is a matter of high significance, that there is no other important matter for the nation and politics, than the family life. The medical, governmental, political environments are getting rich, but the family is getting poor, the Polish demography has collapsed – more people are dying than are born, there is no money for upbringing, neither for medical treatment, nor for a worthy existence of the family. This is a serious neglect which will have far-going repercussions. The representatives of the political, social and economic life should have remorse that they do not care about the Polish family living in poverty and in a constant danger. And not saying about families with many children which should be cared for by the state, because they are making effort in bringing up a bigger number of good citizens. These families deserve the name of heroes, as today they are heroically struggling with many difficulties. So, when we are looking at the mottos of pro-life and pro-family marches in a kind of ‘Children are great!’, ‘Direction: family’, we must know that serious problems hide behind these mottos and they are going beyond street marches. They reach to our social, political life, school classrooms, university rooms, factories, because human life is going on there. However, it is the most endangered at the very beginnings of its existence – a child must be born and be loved, and later it is necessary to create him natural conditions for life, education and development. It is the most important task both for the nation and for the state authority. Without friendly policy of the state towards the family, there is no chance for a good development of the future generations.
(AA)
"Niedziela" 26/2013